why blue is your color –

when I first saw you, it was not as intimate as later,
when you watched my back
and forgave me.

when I first touched you, and then your skin,
it was not as powerful as when I was apart from you
and could not sleep,
could not dream,
could not settle for days with you missing.

when I knew your love, it was not through your words,
but through your eyes,
and the way they held me,
across a room,
and the woman, like Elizabeth, she droned on,
unaware
that I was
aloft.

the smell of you dissipates through the day,
until only the slight touch of the
Japanese fragrance
remains on your tendons,
and then it is mine,
because only I am allowed
to be
this close.

and I am weaker than when we started, and less sure.

and you are stronger, I think.

and once,
you held my hand in public,
and told me that you loved me,
and I closed my eyes.

because I knew that I would not survive
the color of your eyes
if I did not.


GLS
10.30.02